Caroline Bell and husband Chris Timbrell’s Café Grumpy is often mentioned as one of the best coffeehouses in New York City. They have a second location in Chelsea (a neighborhood that seems to be Manhattan’s coffee hub), but we ventured to the original Greenpoint, Brooklyn location that opened in 2005. The heat was sweltering outside, not exactly prime coffee tasting weather, but as we learned, Café Grumpy was worth the discomfort.

The counter hosts Clover and Synesso machines. Five cups are available on the Clover, either 12 oz., 16 oz. or iced. They use beans roasted at Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco, Novo Coffee in Denver, Verve Coffee Roasters in Santa Cruz, and Intelligentsia in Chicago. They even offer eight wines by the glass, four whites and four reds. One of the baristas said Bell and Timbrell chose the name because they didn’t want it to sound like they took themselves too seriously.

The front room has orange walls, a communal wood table with wrap around banquette, blackboard menus, and a pressed-tin ceiling painted white. In back, there was a massive space with drop down spun-sugar art. Jazz filled the muggy air in both rooms.

We ordered an Espresso Ristretto ($2), a short shot pulled to make it taste sweeter. Which it was. We also got a cup of Ethiopia Amaro Gayo ($3.25), roasted by Novo, which was one of the best cups of coffee I’ve ever sipped, smooth and earthy.

The Bolivia Angilinaka ($2.25) was roasted by Intelligentsia. It’s a good cup of coffee, but since I can get the same beans back in L.A., it was probably a poor choice. The iced black tea had a “fruit infusion,” and helped to cool us off after sips of hot coffee.

I put more stock in a coffee company that sources coffee at origin and roasts their own beans, but Café Grumpy still has a good approach. They source beans from the top coffee roasters in the country and cherry pick what they want. The customer still gets a great cup of coffee, even if they’re not as directly responsible for the beans’ journey from farm to cup.